Free Republic

Double-amputee Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was granted parole Friday, 10 years after shooting his girlfriend through a toilet door at his home in South Africa in a killing that jolted the world. Department of Corrections spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said Pistorius would be released from prison on Jan. 5. Pistorius, who turned 37 this week, has been in jail since late 2014 for the Valentine’s Day 2013 killing of model Reeva Steenkamp, although he was released for a period of house arrest in 2015 while one of the numerous appeals in his case was heard....

Newly released video captured the moments before a knife-wielding double amputee was fatally shot by police in Los Angeles and shows him stabbing a man in front of a gas station. Huntington Park on Monday released video of Anthony Lowe, 36, sitting in his wheelchair on Jan. 26 before attacking a pedestrian with a 12-inch butcher knife near a Shell station. The man, who is seen staggering, was critically wounded with a collapsed lung but is recovering. Police also released the 911 call made by the victim, who identified himself as Ramiro. “I got stabbed in the heart right now,”...

A group of California police officers shot and killed a double amputee on Thursday as he tried to run away from them on his stumps after jumping out of his wheelchair. The three cops from Huntington Park Police Department were filmed firing at least eight shots at Anthony Lowe Jr., a 36-year-old father-of-two. His family say he lost the lower halves of his legs recently after an altercation with police in Texas. Lowe Jr. had just stabbed someone unprovoked, according to the police department, and was trying to run away from two officers on Thursday. First, they tried to Tase...

LACKAWANNA COUNTY, Pa. -- An area veteran is tossing his hat into the political ring, announcing he is running for Congress. Staff Sgt. Earl Granville posted a video on his website Thursday morning explaining why he is running as a Republican for Congress in the 8th District against incumbent Democrat Matt Cartwright. The 8th Congressional District covers much of northeastern Pennsylvania. Granville joined the Pennsylvania National Guard in 2001 and went on to serve tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He was severely injured in an attack in Afghanistan and lost his leg.

The prosthetic legs of a double amputee and soon-to-be high school wrestling captain were stolen from a gym closet in California last week, putting his dreams of winning a state championship or even wrestling this season in doubt. Brett Winters, a senior at Pacific High School in San Bernardino, California, was born without tibia bones in his legs. As a baby, his mother was told by doctors that Winters could either spend life in a wheelchair or amputate his legs.

Mario Guzman lived to race. For the last two decades Guzman ran in marathons, half marathons, and competed in multiple ironman triathlons. “It was a passion. It wasn’t a hobby, it was a passion,” Guzman said. That all changed more than three years ago when Guzman went to the doctor after injuring his ankle during a run. “We were very puzzled about his symptoms,” said Ludmila Parada, Mario’s wife. “My husband has a fever, he feels very ill and the foot that was completely unremarkable the day before was all swollen and red and he couldn’t put weight on it.”...

The driver of the bus, however, has stated that the man was indeed the terrorist, and that security officials at the hospital confirmed as much. The driver, Moshe Levy, spoke with BeHadrei Haredim on Tuesday, and recalled the incident and his encounter with the alleged terrorist. “The [bus] ride was normal; I saw the terrorist get on the bus at one of the stations. The terrorist boarded and paid just like everyone else. He didn’t look suspicious to me, and he wasn’t carrying a strange bag or something. No, I didn’t suspect him.” “Then all of the sudden, on Baram...

Derek Weida’s humorous, profanity-filled Internet videos on bodybuilding and weight loss have attracted millions of viewers. The amputee veteran has his own clothing line, and tens of thousands of people have reached out to him for diet and exercise advice. But Weida, 29, who credits fitness with helping him break out of severe depression after an insurgent’s bullet ended his Army career, said he would gladly give up his Web fame if he could return to active duty. Through motivational videos and a nonprofit that helps veterans cover fitness-related expenses, Weida has found a new way to serve by trying...

"Jesse, 28, lost both of his legs in Afghanistan in 2009 after stepping on an IED, which was all caught on video by a fellow marine wearing a helmet camera." The footage was even used in a documentary about Jesse called "Coming Home." "If I hadn't stepped on that IED I wouldn't have met her," Jesse told ABC News. "I wouldn't take it back ever."

On Dec. 13, 2011, Marine Lance Cpl. Christian Brown was leading his squad on a foot patrol in Afghanistan’s Helmand province when he stepped on an explosive device that blew off both his legs, one above the knee, the other below his hip. He also lost part of his right index finger. Last Sunday, almost exactly a year since those grievous injuries forced him to learn to walk on two successive pairs of prosthetic legs, Brown was “humiliated” to the point of tears on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Washington after being clumsily wheeled to the back row of...

Cheers erupted inside Tampa International Airport on Sunday as 22-year-old Marine Corporal Mike Nicholson arrived home. Nicholson was on foot patrol in Afghanistan when he lost both legs and part of his left arm in an I.E.D. explosion July 6, 2011. He has been recovering at Bethesda Naval Hospital for months and is now using two prosthetic legs. "It makes it all real, but also makes me really proud that he survived it," Nicholson’s uncle, Jim Hall, said. "He's toughed it out. He’s had great support in Bethesda. I can't say enough about the support here, from the church, to...

For the medical fraternity it is a world-first operation, but for Marny Cringle it is more about the simple things in life. After years of talks with specialists about the practicalities of a prosthetic limb, the 42-year-old has been chosen for a remarkable bionic leg which will fuse on to living muscle and bone to become a natural extension of her body. (Snip) The next step is for surgeons at the Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney to anchor the top part of the bionic leg into her femur, where muscle and bone will gradually grow around it. It will be

Two years after losing all four limbs in a bomb explosion in Iraq, a Staten Island soldier was finally given the keys to his new, state-of-the-art home yesterday. And he could not stop smiling. Brendan Marrocco beamed with pride as he crossed the threshold into his new abode in Prince's Bay, which has been tailor-made to suit his every need. "It's very overwhelming. The house is amazing," the 24-year-old said. "I can finally just try to live my life like everybody else. I really appreciate this." Marrocco was behind the wheel of an armored vehicle on Easter Sunday 2009 when...

A U.S. Army veteran who lost his legs while deployed in Iraq died after he was thrown from a 200-foot-tall roller coaster at an upstate theme park on Friday. James Thomas Hackemer, 29, was ejected from the Ride of Steel roller coaster at the Darien Lake Theme Park Resort, located between Buffalo and Rochester, at about 5:30 p.m., the Genesee County sheriff's office said. The park confirmed a guest "came out of the Ride of Steel roller coaster" and said it was "saddened to report that the guest has passed." Hackemer, of Gowanda, lost his right leg below his knee...

Click on the YouTube link in next post. There's a guy with no legs and missing an arm who is in better shape than me. Super Heros one and all.

Updated Wednesday, May 26 at 1:15 PM HOUSTON -- A Houston veteran who has been in a wheelchair since 1983, took his first steps in 27 years Tuesday night. "No easy steps. Only hard steps," Harry Shaw said of his life after the Grenada invasion. It is a conflict most have forgotten, but it changed Shaw's life forever. “I was the most serious out of all of the injured in Grenada," Shaw said. He lost both legs. Shaw accepted his fate of life in a wheelchair with courage and grace. "I'm a paratrooper. That's just the way I am. The...

Liz Edinger will never forget that telephone call, the one dreaded by any worried parent of a uniformed son or daughter in harm's way in Afghanistan or Iraq. "Nick called and asked if I was sitting down," she said. "I sat down, and he said, 'Mom, my left foot is missing.' " "This is six hours after it happened," added Scott Edinger, her husband and Nick's father. "He said, 'I stepped on a land mine but don't worry, I'm going to be fine.' " Army Cpl. Nick Edinger, 22, lost his left foot to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan...

He has no legs and no eyesight, but Marine Cpl. Matthew Bradford has four more years of military service ahead of him after becoming the first blind double-amputee to re-enlist. The rifleman was injured in January 2007 in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded right under him, the San Antonio Express-News reported. But after years at the Center for the Intrepid, a privately funded, cutting-edge rehabilitation center, Bradford, 23, has learned to walk with prosthetic limbs and navigate without his vision, and he only regrets that he can’t return to combat duty in Iraq, the paper reported. Instead the Kentucky...

A St. Paul man has been charged with beating up a quadruple amputee. The fight reportedly started after she was blocking his view of the television. Jacoby Smith, 37, was charged Friday for beating up a woman and trying to stop her from calling 911. Neighbors thought the couple that lived inside the East St. Paul apartment on Jessie Street looked out for each other. Allegations of a brutal attack early Monday morning have changed their minds. "He would be pushing her wheelchair and helping her out. I didn't think something like this would happen," Latonya Wulff, a neighbor said....

An amputee missing both legs was arrested Thursday after police said he was wheeled into a busy New York City train station and planted a bomb. Police found the bomb before it could detonate, but the discovery interrupted regional train lines briefly and closed the station for several hours. The alleged device—a bag of small explosives wrapped in shotgun shells, along with bullets, glue, lug nuts, pens and a ruler—was left in a waiting area at a station in Harlem. Police later surveyed security videos to identify suspects including, Roosevelt Terry, the amputee. Police from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which...